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  • A Mind Spread Out on the Ground

  • Written by: Alicia Elliott
  • Narrated by: Alicia Elliott
  • Length: 6 hrs and 36 mins
  • 4.8 out of 5 stars (459 ratings)

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A Mind Spread Out on the Ground

Written by: Alicia Elliott
Narrated by: Alicia Elliott
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Publisher's Summary

Number One National Best Seller

Shortlisted for The 2019 Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF 2019 BY THE GLOBE AND MAIL • CBC • CHATELAINE • QUILL & QUIRE • THE HILL TIMES • POP MATTERS

A bold and profound meditation on trauma, legacy, oppression, and racism in North America from award-winning Haudenosaunee writer Alicia Elliott.

In an urgent and visceral work that asks essential questions about the treatment of Native people in North America while drawing on intimate details of her own life and experience with intergenerational trauma, Alicia Elliott offers indispensable insight into the ongoing legacy of colonialism. She engages with such wide-ranging topics as race, parenthood, love, mental illness, poverty, sexual assault, gentrifcation, writing, and representation, and in the process makes connections both large and small between the past and present, the personal and political - from overcoming a years-long battle with head lice to the way Native writers are treated within the Canadian literary industry; her unplanned teenage pregnancy to the history of dark matter and how it relates to racism in the court system; her childhood diet of Kraft Dinner to how systemic oppression is directly linked to health problems in Native communities.

With deep consideration and searing prose, Elliott provides a candid look at our past, an illuminating portrait of our present and a powerful tool for a better future.

©2019 Alicia Elliott (P)2019 Doubleday Canada
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What the critics say

"This book is hard, vital medicine. It is a dance of survival and cultural resurgence. Above all, it is breathtakingly contemporary Indigenous philosophy, in which the street is also part of the land, and the very act of thinking is conditioned by struggles for justice and well-being." (Warren Cariou, author of Lake of the Prairies)

"These essays are of fiercest intelligence and courageous revelation. Here, colonialism and poverty are not only social urgencies, but violence felt and fought in the raw of the everyday, in embodied life and intimate relations. This is a stunning, vital triumph of writing." (David Chariandy, author of Brother)

"Wildly brave and wholly original, Alicia Elliot is the voice that rouses us from the mundane, speaks political poetry, and brings us to the ceremony of every day survival. Her words remind us to carry both our weapons and our medicines, to hold both our strength and our open, weeping hearts. A Mind Spread Out on the Ground is what happens when you come in a good way to offer prayer, and instead, end up telling the entire damn truth of it all." (Cherie Dimaline, author of The Marrow Thieves)

What listeners say about A Mind Spread Out on the Ground

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Loved it!

Every North American should hear Alicia's words. She speaks to her own story, but also that of many other Indigeneous and BIPOC community members.

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thank you

This book feel similar to my own experiences growing up and helps shed some light in to my peers lives. Thank you for writing this it had to be a challange to say the least.

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Eye opening

This book was a glimpse into a world I am unfamiliar with. It is tragic and at times hard to listen due to the subject matter but it is so important to know about stories like this so we can better support our neighbours dealing with poverty and the multigenerational effects of colonialism. I am glad I have read it. Thank you to the author for sharing her story.

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nuanced look at mental health and colonial trauma

a really beautiful written story that is very personal and sometimes hard to stomach. this writer looks at the hardships and love that comes from a family surviving mental health issues and their intertwined connections to colonial trauma.

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Good read

This is a book I would recommend to all Canadians.
It’s what we need to know and we’re never taught.

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A great read!

I loved it. It was (mentally / emotionally) hard content to hear, at times. I felt like I could taste/feel/visualize the authors stories as she recounts the raw truth of life growing up poor in rural Ontario.

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Beautiful

Beautiful writing. I could relate to many of the subjects regarding family, race, and abuse. She writes and asks questions that really make you reflect.

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Educational and Powerful

I love it when authors read their own books. This audiobook really personalizes the memoir. Each chapter stands on its own as memoir, story, and history so good for audiobook listening. Very educational and powerful.

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Transformative Read.

Alicia Elliot is a brilliant author. She talks authentically through her own experiences what it means to grow up in Turtle Island, an empire that gaslights, abuses, and continues to perpetuate violence against marginalized populations and indigenous folk. She talks about the failures of social workers taking children away from loving families without solving any root issues, making it seem like it is the indigenous family's fault, and how the jail system only perpetuates abuse and violence, rather than solving it. history matters. indigenous voices matter. transformative read.

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In my humble opinion

This book is profoundly disturbing and yet brutally honest. The insights that Alicia shares with us and the transparent vulnerability create a connection to the author. Written in picturesque prose, makes a difficult subject matter easier to read. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn, grow and open their mind. Thanks to Alicia for providing this opportunity to others and for beautifully written essays. “Know better do better “

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